2005 World Summit.
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Thursday September 15, 2005 13:55
by mandarin of muesli
(high level plenary meeting of the 60th session of the United Nations)
"the 2005 World Summit is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the world to come together and take action on grave global threats that require bold global solutions. It is also a chance to revitalize the United Nations itself. It is, in short, an opportunity for all humankind." - Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Ireland sent Bertie and Dermot Ahern. Think about that for a moment and consider the quality of intellect, sincerity, ability, that the Ahern brothers' representation of your state implies for the quality of that sent by the other 153 nations.
Yes. If they sent family delegations like that from most of Africa and Asia together with the real ghouls of power :-The planet is fucked.
But at least they will tell each other before hand that they need to work together.
highlights of the noon briefing yesterday :-
http://www.un.org/News/ossg/hilites.htm
they have talked about :-
* agreement on "terrorism"
* a Peace-building Commission
* Human Rights Council.
* how well they've been doing on a nation by nation basis, and it really is a problem the "others" have to deal with.
Blair's speech
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/speeches/story/0,,1570033,00.html
Blair is president of the EU at the moment, and one of the "leading critics calling for reform". We know this, because in his first international speech as UK PM all those years ago, he spoke about the UN, when a lot of people still thought he was a breath of fresh air. He also spoke about his kids, climate, he didn't mention the terror then.
But we do know Mr Annan doesn't like him, and this is Mr Annan's party.
Blair didn't get to sit at the top table yesterday for brekkie. (neither indeed did the Ahern duo). This might be because in the run-up to the Iraq war (an illegal war which had no UN mandate and served to further discredit the international institutions of arbitration and inspection) the British bugged him. Not like the way they did Gerry Adams and pals in Belfast with a big "built into the wall effort", no it was really high tech, and really small (approaching nanotech).
They all said different things before hand and indeed the "world leaders" who aren't really "world leaders" didn't get to say anything, and have to wait to squeeze in their thoughts later on in the proceedings.
But one speech which "impressed" everyone was that of Mr Bush (junior) who finally said that the USA would drop barriers to trade with poor nations as other states did. If the USA didn't dominate world trade now, it would be a decent thing to write into a speech. But it wasn't it was pathetic.---
read Bush's speech here
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050915/NEWS06/509150301
The brekkie report yesterday :-
Eating their brekkie for the UN gig gave several "world leaders" their chance to smile at the smell of cofee, included amongst them at the tippy toppy table the Kings of Jordan and Spain, Bush, Putin, Kofi Annan, ricard Lagos of Chile and the president of China Mr Hu Jintao, Mr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, Mr Mbeki of South Africa and Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia.
Now the rest of the seating plan is/was
very
very
very
very
very
very sensitive.
You'd want to be nicole kidman with an afrikaans accent to get that.
I can tell you that De Villepin moved up a rank and took the seat at brekkie and lunch that would normally go to president Chirac and has continued to push the "global air tax idea" [which I support] for those of you who have forgotten or didn't know, Chirac has consistently proposed a blanket tax on air travel to fund african vaccines and health. Its simple, possible and would carry the benefit of reducing parasitic tourism, and atmospheric pollution. I can also tell you that the Holy See delegation have made a surprising seat change too.
I can also tell you what they ate -
starters - smoked salmon and trout
followed by lamb with truffles and spuds in bechamel sauce.
they were offered french wines or water.
and for desert they were offered chocolate tart.
Now is that a brekkie? no it isn't a brekkie, you've got to be really awake a few hours to eat & drink that stuff and stay coherent and pronounce your speech properly, I do swiss bank working brekkies on occasion and they don't even offer ye such blatently clichéd poshnosh with northern european branding. No sirree. Coffee, marmalade, toasties (avoid them crumbs get everywhere) crossaints thats what you need.
I can also tell you I am "through the little flies on the wall" keeping an eye on the table manners.
Either Bertie or Dermot spills the bechamel on their silk tie -
I'll let you know diplomatically of course;-)
